5 Reasons You May Lose Your Job

No job is permanent. It’s either you walk out on your own after attaining a better position or better offer or you choose to leave for further studies or your employment is terminated. While no one wishes for the latter, it is inevitable. Sometimes, people get fired for the wrong reasons, other times you signed your own fate with your hands. Let’s explore a few of the reasons below:

Zero Passion

Many of us go into a job with zero knowledge of the job. I remember when I was just employed at my current job, I had zero knowledge of what the organization is into and I watch with anew interest everyday as people troop in for one meeting or the other. But was I eager to learn? Of course…I read through every mail I was copied in, every document that pass through me I study and google for strange terms…31 months has passed and I’ve moved passed where I was when I started incredibly and I can attest to it too.

Many times, we find ourselves in a job we weren’t trained for or not even related to what we studied in school but we should be willing to learn on the job.

I learnt recently of a lady that studied Mass Communication in school and was employed as an accountant for an organization that do sales and purchases almost every 10 minutes every day.

Everyone expected her to learn, but she kept on making mistakes and costing the organization losses with her inaccurate bookkeeping.

When asked why this keeps happening, she said she hated any figures related work but she thought this would be easy and she can handle it… I was stunned! Obviously, she has zero passion for what she had been employed to do and no matter what anyone does, she would never be interested to put in her best.

No employer wants an employee they can’t trust. Once you are in a firm, you are entrusted with trade secrets. It would really be unwise of you to divulge these to competitors or outsiders just because you feel you can.

Aside divulging trade secrets, it would really be a wrong characteristic of any employee who can’t be trusted.

I use to know of a guy who would tamper with office equipment and appliances, complain to his employer about this just to collect some Nairas to have it fix and then he’d just adjust what he has touched and keep the money.

And yes he was caught one day and then he did lose his means of daily bread.

Inability to stay current

Quite a number of people have refused to up their ‘game’. So many people are too comfortable with the position they are that they failed to realize this is 2017. Recently, I was going through some resume and pay schedules and I was perked up by a particular resume.

This lady has 10 years’ experience in her current position…no other certifications or degree aside her first degree and I was stunned…Trust me no matter how much experience she must have gathered over the years, her pro level will still be on the same level as when she started the job except she can easily defend herself. But then, don’t they always say your resume always speak for your first?

If an opportunity should come tomorrow at such firm and they need to lay off some people, trust me, she’d be one of the first to go.

Relationship Attitude

No matter how efficient and hardworking you may be, no boss wants to watch his employees relate like enemies. You are employed to produce result and I don’t see how that can be sustain if there’s no healthy relationship between you and your co-workers. If you find it difficult to relate with others, it’s a big issue and its threatens a firm’s level of productivity.

The Wrong Mindset about being Indispensable

So many of us work as though the firm is a family heirloom. We tend to have the wrong mindset about believing we are indispensable, hence, we do so many things and feel we can get away with it.

As long as you are not the major shareholder or CEO of your firm, you can be let off the hook at any point in time. No one is irreplaceable. It may take a ‘moment’ but a replacement is just lurking around somewhere waiting for you to mess up.

It is a terrible mindset if you act as though you are well connected to the big shots in the firm and choose to do what you like- your days of goodbyes will begin to count.

What are your thoughts on these? Do you agree with the points above? Which will you remove and what will you add?

I read thru and ur write up was cool ,except that i felt for the mass comm lady that got the job of an accountant.That could be a very difficult one.Accounting and book keeping is not what u just learn on the job

But while I agree with you on this, I believe everyone who has a passion for what she has found herself doing, will be willing to developed on it. Asides learning on the job, there are several training one can do to help equip them with more knowledge.

This is a brilliant piece. i personally like the point raised on inability to stay current. The benefits and need to up one’s game cannot be overemphasized. Daily upgrade of knowledge and skills and abilities is very paramount in all spheres of life.